Way back in 1995, I used to subscribe to an email newsletter called I-Sales, published by a guy called John Audette. While the objective was to help people use the web to sell stuff, in practice, the agenda was much more eclectic and covered all kinds of wonderful topics, guided by John’s wisdom, but led very much by the huge readership. Getting something published by John was an honour and the readership hotly competed to be the chosen ones several times a week. Indeed, my first published writing probably came courtesy of John Audette and the I-Sales readers.

In those days, the web community was only just getting started and it really was possible to influence how things were developing. I remember, for instance, a debate about what Viral Marketing (a phrase attributed to legendary VC, Steve Jurvetson) should actually be called. Steve might be a great investor, but it’s actually rather a nasty phrase and one that doesn’t really stand up to much analysis. I mean, you don’t “catch” ideas like they were herpes. Generally, people you like send you information as they think you’ll like it, or because it’s embedded in a product they’re using, such as Hotmail.

The phrase I wanted to be adopted was Word of Mouse, as it does what it says on the tin, as well as being a little more elegant. But Viral Marketing prevailed.

It struck me that we have a similar opportunity today at MobHappy, especially if the wider Blogosphere chimes in, about the “mobile web” and what we (the thought leaders of the industry) actually want it to be called.

Currently it’s really, really confusing. The issue is that even if we know what we mean, other people attribute different meanings. So if the purpose of language is to clarify and aid thought, it’s not working in this case. As someone who talks about the mobile web every day to a variety of people, the main problems are:

* To most lay people, WAP means surfing the net on your mobile phone. To these guys, it’s synonymous with the mobile web.

* To people who know what they’re talking about, WAP is just a protocol that allows you to access certain Internet sites built in WML language and viewed through a WAP browser. Added to WAP access, you can also use a web browser allowing you to view sites written in HTML, XHTML, XHTML-MP etc.

So if you say to non-techie people “You can go to a mobile web site” they go “what, do you mean like errr….WAP?”

Conversely, if you say to a technogod “You can go to a wap site” they go “Now, do you really mean WAP or XHTML?”

And I go “Who cares? As long as we can agree on something that means accessing a website on your mobile phone, I don’t mind what it’s called.”

The situation is further complicated in that you don’t know before you start talking what level of technical sophistication your listener enjoys. And short of tattooing this information on people’s foreheads, this challenge is here to stay.

So, in an ideal world, dear readers, what should we be saying here? Personally, I tend to use “mobile web”, which I think covers both angles, but still leads to a blank look by our technically-challenged peers. Other use “mobile internet” and others stick to “wap sites and mobile websites” - pedants that they are.

So what phrase do you think we should be trying to get adopted?

Of course, this debate will eventually become irrelevant. People will be accessing the web, end of story and the device that they choose to do so on and the language the site is written in, will simply not be important anymore. Furthermore, the majority will be doing this most of the time on the mobiles no desktops, so the distinction will be largely academic. 

But, in the meantime, what should we be saying the make the transition as smooth and as quick as possible?